Our Adventures at Syfy Bartow

We knew getting to Bartow would be tiring. Neither of us have been at our best the last few weeks, so we started the weekend tired and a little overwhelmed. For one thing, we were both still working on ‘Bartow Projects’ right up until we started packing the car. Scratch that, my hubby was still working on projects even as we started packing the car on Thursday.

One of our neighbors saw us trying to get a folding table and a gazebo in the car and came over to see if he could help. Those were the big, awkward things we were trying to pack first. Most everything else was smaller and lighter, and we could manage them. But it’s nice to know we have nice neighbors.

We got most things in the car on Thursday, and decided we had room to take a fellow Klingon who otherwise did not have a way to get to Bartow. He showed up on Friday about 11am and helped get the rest of the stuff in the car. Then we got on the road about 2:18 pm.

I’m a little bit of a nervous driver these days, especially when I’m driving roads I don’t really know well, so it was tough for me to keep my speed up near the speed limit. It should have taken us an hour to get to our hotel in Bartow, but it actually took 1.5 hours. We found our stuff we would need for the night and settled into our room. About 7, we walked over to Mike’s Grill for supper.

We got up about 7 on Saturday, and went to Mike’s Grill for breakfast, because we knew it was going to be a long and hard day. People who come to the street festival can go home when they get tired, but vendors have to unload their vehicle, pitch their gazebo, set up their table and get their wares displayed by 11AM, when the festival starts. Then they are expected to man their table until 6PM, when the festival ends, when they tear down their display, strike their tents, retrieve their vehicle and pack everything up.

We had to do this twice, once for MoonPhaze and once for the Klingons. Happily, my booth space was right next to some friends, so I had help setting up the gazebo and taking it down. And there were many Klingons there for this event, so it looked like a mild case of bedlam when I dropped off my two Klingons and all the Klingon stuff we had brought, but I knew they would soon have things up and running.

I assume the Klingons had fun. I had a great day for MoonPhaze. I had 50% more book sales than I did at the previous best event, which was a 3-day sf convention. I was very happy.

About 3:30, the organizers told us that rain was expected in about an hour, so if we wanted to tear down and bug out, that was acceptable. Around 4, it started misting, and people started packing things away. By 4:30, it was raining, and the organizers called an end to the event. By then, most of the visitors had left. I packed all my stuff up and stored it temporarily under a store’s overhang while I walked over to the Klingon area to get my car and load up the Klingon stuff. Then we went back to my booth area, where our passenger repacked the car to get everything in, and we helped our friends in the next booth take down gazebos and load their van.

We were all cold, wet and worn out when we got in our car and headed back to the hotel. We got there about 7 and stopped at Mike’s Grill for supper, which included some wonderful beef noodle soup.

Tired as we were, we count this event as a success!

SyFy Bartow!

MoonPhaze will have a booth next Saturday (Feb 17) at the Syfy Bartow street festival. This is a festival we try to attend every year, but sometimes, life intrudes, and we don’t get there. For instance, last year, my husband was sick in February, and we didn’t make it.

This year, we will be located in the next to last block on the east end of Main Street in downtown Bartow (FL), between Florida and Hendry Avenues. This will be a new area for us; we have mostly been located on the western end of the festival. Booths will be lined up along Main Street and several side streets.

We are planning to take books and some small cosplay prosthetics (ie, wounds, cyborg pieces, and so on) to sell. But our vehicle also needs to carry displays and stuff for the KAG (Klingon Assault Group) area, so I am limited in how much I can take. I also have to take a table, at least 2 chairs, a gazebo to provide shade, a cooler of cold drinks and some snacks to get us through the day.

The festival runs from 11 AM to 6 PM. Hundreds of vendors, cosplay, a costume contest, food trucks, a car show, music and other entertainment… what more could you ask for? Attendance is free. Cosplay is encouraged. Hope to see you there! 

My First Book Festival, Part 3

Saturday. The big day.

My room was cold when I got up. I checked the thermostat. It was set for 74, but the actual temperature was 64. I checked the unit under the window, and it said it was set for heat, to the temperature of 64. I tried to bump it up to 74, but it immediately went back to 64. I didn't have time to mess with it. I went downstairs to get some breakfast. I chose some oatmeal, bacon and orange juice, since I don't drink coffee. The breakfast lounge was humming with people.

When it came time to go to the festival site, I had to scrape frost off all my car windows. Well, actually, I turned on the car, set the defrost to high and scraped the side windows. By the time I got that done, the windshield and rear windows were clear. I wasn't sure we still had an ice scraper in my car, so I had originally had visions of trying to clear my windows with a credit card. Thank goodness I didn't need to do that.

It was a 15-minute drive to the site, and then waiting in line to unload of about the same amount of time. An aide showed up with a cart, and I unloaded my 5 boxes. She went to park the cart in the lobby while I took my car to 'the grassy area' and walked back to the building. It was probably 8:45 or so when I got my books transferred to our table, and the aide came to take the cart away so it could be used again.

The festival opened to the public at 10 am, and I had our table all set up by 9:30, so I pulled out my phone and my square reader and tried to figure out how to use it. I couldn't get it to connect to the church's wifi, no matter how hard I tried. Consequently, every time I opened the square app, it had a bright red banner across the top saying I wasn't connected to the internet. I got up and consulted with a couple other authors to see if they were having problems, but they weren't.

In sheer desperation, I called one of my sons to see if he had any suggestions. And it was sheer desperation, because he doesn't use the square app, so he was making things up as he went along. Eventually, he and his wife were going out for breakfast, so I knew I was on my own with my problem. But something he said made me look in my settings, and my data connection wasn't turned on. I turned it on, and opened my square app... and I no longer had that bright red banner about not being connected to the internet.

I breathed a sigh of relief and tried to figure out how to navigate the square app. It was a lesson in frustration, because it seemed to open to a different page each time I opened it, leaving me with no idea where I was at in the app, and even less of an idea how to get where I wanted to go. Thankfully, I only needed to use it once that entire day. A young man wanted to buy 2 books, so I discounted the price. I got the amount put in the app, but when I ran his card through the reader... it didn't register, and therefore didn't charge him. But I didn't realize that until later.

I now have a new chore on my 'to do' list: Practice with the square app.

It was not a tremendously busy day. They had 150 authors in attendance. They may or may not have had that many people come in and shop. Our table was in the 'science fiction' section, but there were no signs to indicate what section had what kind of books. When customers were scarce, I pulled myself away from our table to go network with other authors. That was actually kind of fun. I always started the conversation the same way; "What type of books do you write?"

And I talked to people who walked by, usually starting with, "What type of book do you like to read?" Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but at least I wasn't just sitting there like a bump on a log. My husband would have been proud of me.

About 4:45, they announced it was time to start packing up what books we had left and leave. I hadn't sold that many books, and I was trying to pack them away in the same boxes they came in, so it was about 5:30 before I found a cart, loaded up my boxes and went to get my car. A helpful person saw me pushing the cart towards my car, and helped me transfer the boxes into the trunk. She was very helpful, and upon hearing where I was from, she got my phone number and sent me the contact information for the 'book festival' being held in Orlando. I thanked her profusely and went back to the hotel.

All I'd had for 'lunch' was some pumpkin seeds and a bottle of pop I had bought from the hotel before I had left that morning. There were supposed to be food trucks at the festival site for most of the day, but they never announced that they had arrived, and I didn't have my husband there to watch the table, so I ate my seeds and was glad to have them. By the time I got back to the hotel, nearly 6 pm, I was hungry, so I went to bar and ordered loaded nachoes and a piece of cheesecake. I should have forgotten about the cheesecake, because there were enough nachoes on that plate to feed 2 of me. But I finished most of them, and the cheesecake, then I went to my room and watched tv to let my nerves settle down.

The whole experience had been so-o-o-o far outside my comfort zone! Even going for supper was uncomfortable, because I was by myself, the bar was busy and noisy. I was pretty desperate for some solitude by the time I reached my room.

The room was still cold. I had neglected to bring a jacket or sweater with me, so I climbed into bed and watched tv.

At one point, my youngest son called me. He had signed up for an online class on IT, one that would 'probably' take him 6 months to finish. He had finished it in 3 weeks, and he wanted to crow a little bit about it. I understood the feeling, I wanted to crow a little too, about how well I had handled the book festival. So we talked a little bit, and then I promised to call him back on Sunday afternoon, after I got home.

So, about 11 (I'm usually up until midnight), I turned off the tv and the lights, pulled the blankets up to my ears to keep the chill air away, and went to sleep.

My First Book Festival, Part 2

So there it was, Friday, and at some point, I needed to leave for the 1 ½ to 2 hour drive to Gainesville. At first, I thought I’d leave at 1 pm. I put my 5 small boxes of books in the trunk of my car. I put my suitcase in the back seat. I filled a grocery sack with snacks and a 6-pack cooler with drinks, and about 2 o’clock, I stopped procrastinating and pulled out of the driveway.

After I filled the tank, I meandered through some back roads to get to the turnpike. Before I got on that, I had to stop and find my sunpass box, which had popped off the windshield. I tried to get it to stick to the windshield, but it kept popping off, so I placed it on the dashboard and hoped it would work. When I took the entrance to the turnpike, the machines recognized my sunpass, so I breathed a sigh of relief. It wouldn’t have been a disaster if it hadn’t recognized my sunpass, but it would have been more expensive.

I reached the service plaza on the turnpike and pulled in for a few minutes. I very seldom drive on highways anymore, and had been having problems keeping my speed fairly consistent. The speed limit was 70, and it seemed the fastest I was comfortable going was 60, and even that wasn’t consistent. After about 10 minutes, I got on the road again.

About an hour later, I pulled off at a rest stop to eat a little snack and drink some pop. My speed still wasn’t very consistent, but at least it was fluctuating between 60 and 70. Again, after about 10 minutes, I got back on the road.

I was still having trouble keeping my speed steady, but now I kept finding it veering toward 80. And then we approached the Gainesville exits, and the right hand lane, where I was, came to a dead stop, as the exit lane was backed up that far. Having come to a stop, traffic was heavy enough that I could not pull over into the next lane to continue. Eventually, the exit lane moved forward enough that I could move past the exit and continue on my way.

The Gainesville exit I need was the most northern one, naturally, since I was coming from the south. But I found it, successfully got off, and drove right by the street leading to the hotel. I had to turn around and come back to it. The hotel was busy with people checking in, but I got checked in with no problem, and got my stuff up to my room.

Now the nerves really started to bother me, thinking about that 'meet and greet' I was supposed to go to from 7 to 9. I got myself ready by 7, memorized the route to the site, and took off. It was dark, since it was the end of January, and I was trying to keep an eye on the street names so I didn't miss my turns. I did not keep up with the speed limit, and thankfully, I did not need to change lanes. I thought there would be signs on the church campus to direct us to the correct building, but there weren't. I parked my car and headed for the building that had lights on.

I had the right building, as evidenced by the Sunshine State Book Festival sign that stood outside the doors, but I hadn't seen that from the road or parking lot. I walked inside, and found there was some confusion going on at the registration table, where we were to claim our name badges. The registration person had stepped away for some reason, and 3 or 4 people (myself included) were going through the badges, trying to find ours. Instead of being arranged alphabetically, they were arranged by table number. I found the badge for Table 45, but it wasn't my name on it. When the registration person got back, I asked if possibly my table number was 145, and sure enough, there my name was. Which meant John's name badge was 146.

I wandered into the large inner room, where lots of tables and chairs were set up, just like for a dealer's room. I found my way to the refreshments, and realized I hadn't bothered to eat any supper. Not that there was an awful lot to choose from. There were a few pinwheel sandwiches, but I didn't know what was in them, so I skipped those. I selected a couple cookies, a few pieces of vegetables, fruit and cheese, and a glass of lemonade to drink, since I don't drink coffee.

I had worn one of my MoonPhaze shirts, with the MoonPhaze logo on the back, and 'Author' on the front. I received 3 or 4 comments on that shirt, all thinking it was a good idea. One lady said she had done something similar, but had put the front of her book on her shirt, which is also a good idea. Most of the authors were already gathered in small groups, talking, but several paused to exchange pleasantries as they wandered from 1 group to another.

After I finished my refreshments, I noticed a man sitting at a table alone, staring at his phone. So I decided to REALLY step outside my comfort zone and start talking to him. Turns out he's not an author, he's a computer geek, but he was there to support his wife, who is an author. Pretty soon, our little group of 2 people grew to 5 people, and we were having a nice little chat about nothing in particular. About that time, the organizers announced it was time for us to leave, so we all said good-bye and I went out to my car.

Having memorized the route to get there, I only had to follow it backwards to get to the hotel. That only took me 15 minutes, but I didn't feel like going to the sports bar restaurant attached to the hotel for supper, so I just ate some more of my snacks in my room before climbing into bed. I had to get up early in the morning to have breakfast and get to the site by 8:00.

My First Book Festival, Part 1

I had been looking forward to this for months. Months, I tell you! I had paid for memberships in the writer’s organization that organized the Sunshine State Book Festival in Gainesville FL, and then, I paid for and reserved a full table at their book festival, held on Jan 28, 2023. I read all their emails, trying to figure out how this would be different from having a table at a Midwest sf convention, either literary or media. Because that was where I had sharpened my teeth, so to speak, trying to sell our books.

It would only be 1 day long, not like those Midwest cons, which were almost always 3 days long. Okay, okay, there would be a ‘Meet and Greet’ for 2 hours on Friday night, which might be analogous to a sf con’s con suite on Friday night, but it was only for 2 hours. Surely I could manage that, couldn’t I? Let’s face it, when it comes to sitting and not speaking to anyone, I was one of the best.

Saturday would be the actual book festival. It would be one big dealer’s room, to compare it to sf cons, with each author getting half a table from which to sell their books. There would be no wall of t-shirts, games, or other things being sold, only books. I’ve done 3 and even 5 days sitting behind a table and trying to sell things, so 1 day can’t be too bad. I could do that. Besides, my husband, who is a natural talker, would be there to start conversations and hopefully whet the appetite of potential customers for the books we were selling. Piece of cake.

There would also be ‘panels’, although in the case of this book festival, they were a limited number of readings scheduled throughout the day. I put both our names in as willing to read, but neither of us was selected. Well, pooh. But really, was there a difference between not being selected to read and giving a reading to an empty room?

So I was ready, at least mentally, to go and see how many books we could sell.

And then things kind of fell apart. Or seemed to.

The writer’s group suggested bringing 10 copies of each book to sell. I normally only take 5 or 6 copies each when I go to a convention. But I dutifully set about packing up 10 copies each… only to find I had several books that I didn’t have 10 copies of. With less than a week before the festival, I didn’t have time to order any more. I’d just have to deal with the numbers I had.

I had recently upgraded my old android phone to an old iphone, and I suddenly discovered my square card reader would not plug into my apple phone. Luckily, my son came to my rescue, ordered a new card reader that would plug into my apple from Amazon, which delivered it on Sunday. One disaster averted.

My husband was sick with a sinus infection, which he’d been waiting for 2 months to see the sinus specialist, so he was getting pretty blasted sick. I didn’t want to leave him alone for 2 ½ days, so we planned on him going to Gainsville with me, but staying in the hotel room if he wasn’t up to going to the festival. Another disaster averted.

Or was it? He managed to sleep pretty decently the day before I was to drive to Gainesville, and decided he would just stay home while I went. I wasn’t exactly happy with that plan, but the alternative was that I stayed home with him, which would be throwing away all the money I had spent on this endeavor. So I filled the frig up with food that required little work to get ready to eat. And when it came time to drive off, I went. Maybe next year, I can get him to come with me.